Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catcher release device for a refrigerator and freezer, and more particularly, to a catcher release device for a refrigerator and freezer that has releasing means disposed on the inside of a side panel on which a catcher is located in such a manner as to be connected to the catcher, so that if a person is locked in the refrigerator and freezer, an inner handle of the releasing means just rotates, irrespective of a door lock device, thus allowing the catcher to be separated from the door lock device to rapidly open a door for the refrigerator and freezer.
Background of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator and freezer is used to keep articles to be cooled and frozen therein temporarily or for a long period of time, thus preventing them from being decayed. On the other hand, a door lock device having a case in which a handle and a lock are disposed is mounted on a door panel for the refrigerator and freezer, and a catcher is coupled to a side panel disposed at the opposite side to the door panel, so that a lock of the door lock device is fixed to a striker located at the front surface of the catcher, thus maintaining the locking state of the door.
According to conventional door lock devices, a case is mounted on a door panel, and an operating lever is coupled to a handle connected to the case by means of a pin shaft. Next, one end of the operating lever is connected to a latch, and the latch is supported against an elastic spring in such a manner as to be reciprocated. The case has a frame having fixing holes formed on both sides thereof in such a manner as to fix the case to the door panel by means of bolts or rivets, and a base plate is coupled to the underside of the case by means of bolts.
An example of conventional door lock devices for the door of a refrigerator and freezer is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0321873, wherein the door lock device, which has a lock located on a refrigerator and freezer chamber correspondingly to a striker in such a manner as to be controlled by means of a handle, includes: a catcher located at a given accommodation space and having an accommodation portion formed by a bending portion shielding a support plate on which the striker is disposed; opening and closing means having an outer handle adapted to adjust a quantity of motion of a finger rotating by a given range at the inside and outside of the refrigerator and freezer chamber in such a manner as to correspond to the striker, the opening and closing means being adapted to induce the linear reciprocating motion of an operating plate through the rotation of a trigger connected to an inner handle at the opposing position to the outer handle; releasing means having the inner handle disposed at the inside of the refrigerator and freezer chamber in such a manner as to be not under the influence of the locking state of the outer handle and having a rotary shaft fitted thereto to connect the trigger thereto and the operating plate corresponding to the trigger in such a manner as to be brought into close contact with a base plate; and locking means disposed in a lock box in which the opening and closing means is accommodated in such a manner as to fix the outer handle thereto. According to the conventional door lock device for the door of the refrigerator and freezer, if a person is locked in the refrigerator and freezer, the inner handle rotates to allow the operating plate and the latch to be linearly reciprocated by means of the rotation of the rotary shaft and the trigger, so that the finger connected to the latch is escaped from the striker to open the door. In this case, however, the releasing means becomes complicated in a coupling structure, and it is hard to perform the assembling and separating processes thereof, thus undesirably lowering the productivity thereof.
Since the conventional catcher is maintained at the rigidly fixed state to the side panel, the inner handle and the rotary shaft cannot rotate, thus making it impossible to open the door.
The conventional releasing means becomes complicated in the continuously operating configuration through the organic coupling among the trigger, the operating plate, the latch and the finger upon the operation of the inner handle and the rotary shaft, and further, since the releasing means connected to the conventional door lock device has high price, it may be often removed from the door lock device. If the inner handle of the releasing means is removed from the door lock device, the person may be locked in the refrigerator and freezer. Furthermore, the conventional door lock device and the catcher have many difficulties in the whole assembling processes and the maintenance, thus undesirably increasing the cost of the product and the maintenance cost thereof.
The conventional door lock device and the catcher have main problems as follows: firstly, a hinge shaft of the outer handle may be broken in the process of forcibly pulling the outer handle in the state where a user does not recognize the locking state of the outer handle, thus making it hard to operating the latch and failing to rotate the inner handle; and secondly, if a person is locked in the refrigerator and freezer, he or she cannot be escaped therefrom.
An example of conventional catchers for a door of a refrigerator and freezer is disclosed in Korean Utility Model Laid-Open No. 20-2010-0012567, wherein the catcher includes: a body having an insertion groove formed to accommodate one end portion of a door lock thereinto, a striker mounting portion protruding unitarily from the inside of the insertion groove and having a first fastening hole formed on the side surface thereof, and a base surface having a second fastening hole formed thereon; and a striker having a third fastening hole fastened by means of a bolt to the first fastening hole of the striker mounting portion and having a locking projection formed on the front end portion thereof in such a manner as to be locked onto and released from the door lock. The conventional catcher is just fixed to the side panel, but it does not have any separate releasing means, thus being not expanded in the available range thereof. Further, the conventional catcher is not applied to both of the structure wherein the latch is linearly reciprocated to rotate the finger by the operation of the outer handle and the structure wherein the lock of the latch is linearly reciprocated and escaped from the striker by the operation of the outer handle, so that the conventional catcher should have different structures and coupling systems in accordance with the structures of the door lock device.